Going or coming along my ways in my belle France, need to tell you about a town that was a pleasant visit, and even close by , so much to see ! The title is of more than France because here the Plantagenêt dynasty that a lot to do with England was started really! So, let me tell you a bit on Angers ,on a cloudy warm day in my gorgeous Morbihan. I have put this post in my black and white series, no pictures. See my many posts on it in my blog.
Angers is a city on the banks of the Maine river in department 49 ,Maine-et-Loire in the region of Pays de la Loire. The city is at the confluence of the Loir, Mayenne and Sarthe river been the latter two which form the Maine river by the island of Saint Aubin and the course continues into the Loire river. It is located about 80 km from Nantes and 81 from Le Mans, 110 km from Rennes, and 265 km from Paris. Only at 123 km from the Atlantic ocean at Pornic and 143 km from the Manche in Normandy. Historical capital of the Anjou , birthplace of the Plantagenêt dynasty , and one of the intellectual centers of Europe in the 15C under the reign of the good king René.
Angers is located on three road axis ; the A11 between Paris and Nantes, the A87 towards La Roche-sur-Yon via Cholet and the A85 towards Tours. Rennes can be reach by the expressway D775; and the D761 connects Angers to Poitiers, and Niort. All roads well-traveled by yours truly. Angers by its location on a major river such as the Maine has 8 bridges including a railroad bridge. You can count them north to south as the pont de Segré, railroad bridge; Viaduc de la Maine go around town via the A11; pont Jean-Moulin connects the area of Capucins to the neighborhood of Saint-Serge; pont Confluences connects the hospital district and the Gaumont multicinema ,and now reserved for the tramway, bikes, pedestrians and emergency vehicules; pont de la Haute-Chaîne connects the old historical boulevards to the right bank; pont de Verdun, oldest bridge over the river connects city center to the La Doutre, since the 11C; pont de la Basse-Chaîne, near the castle; and the pont de l’Atlantique, continuation of the roads along the river linking the city center to the districts of Lac de Maine, Belle-Beille, and west of the city since 1973.
The transport here is good, easy no major traffic jams ever encounter. The train station is Gare Saint Laud, the junction with Tours at Saint Nazaire and Le Mans; this is the principal station getting the TGV fast train to Paris-Montparnasse, and Roissy CDG airport. Also, to Nantes. The river transportation is nice due to a pleasure marina at Cale de la Savatte welcomes cruiser and boaters and in summer even cruises up the Mayenne and Sarthe, and Loire rivers. There is free bike service for those living or working in the city with the VéloCité program network. It is,also, in the network EuroVelo6 or the Eurovéloroute des Fleuves crossing over Angers and connecting Saint-Brevin-les-Pins to Constanza Romania, going across Europe from the Atlantic Ocean tothe Black Sea passing ten countries and on the Loire, Rhine,and Danube rivers. In the dept 49 of the Maine-et-Loire, this route is part of the local Loire à Vélo. In town the bus network is done by Keolis and intercities by Anjoubus.
The city architecture can be told in the materials used for construction such as the schist and tuffeau chalk that makes Angers a city of black and white. The inner old town you have the concentration of historic buildings such as the Cité ,the oldest neighborhood with small narrow streets and houses from the Middle Ages. The neighborhood of La Doutre on the right bank is the richest in these types of medieval and renaissance architecture; the city center has buildings to the end of the middle ages to the 19C, sometimes in the Haussmannian style.
A bit of history I like
The name of Angers was mentioned for the first time around the year 150 by Ptolémée in his work of Geography as Juliomagus. On the stone table of Peutlinger we find the name Iuliomago. Angers is again mentioned in the Middle ages under the name of Andecava civitas and in the 5C as Andecavis, Andegavis between 861 and 882, Angieus in 1127, Angeus in 1205 ,and Angiers from the 12C. It was or is known as the city of flowers , the city white or the city black as well as the Athens of the west. The Bretons and the Vikings made incursions here and ransacked the town by 845 and again in 852. After the battle of Jengland, Charles the Bold king of the Francs and Erispoë, Breton chief get together in 851 to signed the treaty of Angers that gives to the Bretons the country around Rennes, Nantes, and Retz fixing the limits of Brittany. The last Caroligians, king of the Francs and counts of Anjou gives the management to viscounts from the end of the 9C. One of these, Foulques le Roux, becomes Foulques Ier d’Anjou in 929 and creates the frist dynasty of counts fo Anjou :from 1060, the Plantagenêt dynasty takes the title of Count with Geoffroy III the bearded, grandson of Foulques Nerra. Leading an empire that goes from the Pyrénées to Ireland. Queen Blanche de Castille ordered built a fortress with a rampart of 3800 meters long on the two sides of the river ; the circle of ramparts in the lower empire starts by the 13C making the cité a military bastion that is closed to the laiques persons.
By 1360, the county is raised to Duchy and Louis I becomes the first Duke of Anjou. By 1434 starts the reign of the good king René duke of Anjou ,Lorraine, Bar, Count of Provence , king of Naples and Jerusalem. It had built three mansions near Angers such as Haute-Folie, Reculée ,and Chanzé,near Baumette, where he found in 1451 the convent of the Cordeliers,and he bequested at his death the tapestry of the Apocalypse to the Cathedral. In 1474, king Louis XI does a movement against the Good King René by coming to Angers as a friendly march with his army and camps outside ; the the king René too old to fight decides to give his kingdom without a fight and Anjou finally entered into the Royal domain. In 1619 ,king Louis XIII authorized Marie de Médicis to stayed at her court in Angers, and she comes to lived at the Logis Barrault; by 1620 there was the battle of Ponts-de-Cé between the allies of the king and those of the mother ; rapidly the treaty of Angers is done and the king accepts the return of his mother to the court of France.
The war of the Vendée creates great damange and losses here with fighting between the revolutionary Republicans and the Vendéens royalists non stop to 1793; the terror come over with many deaths by firing squad at the champ des Martyrs near Avrillé; a guillotine is installed 1793-94 at the current square or Place du Ralliement. Eventually in 1807, Napoléon Ier ordered the medieval fortifications destroyed. During the WWI the city does not suffers much, while during the WWII , she gets involved allowing the Polish government in exile to be seated here at the Château de Pignerolle, becoming the de facto capital of Poland..From 1941, the Nazis make Angers the seat of their HQ of the west of France and later at Pignerolle the communication center for submarines. In 1942,Angers becomes the seat for the regional center of the Gestapo. On August 10 1944, the city is liberated by the US 3rd Army of General Patton.
Things to see in Angers.
The episcopal palace of Angers and the Palais du Tau, since the 9C at the top of the Cathedral is witness to the roman architecture. There is a ramparts wall gallo roman from the 3C of which a tower is preserved and the Synodal room roman, the gothic chimney , a library, a stairs from the renaissance period and an apartment from the 19C. You have the Hospital Saint-Jean d’Angers of hospital architecture located in the La Doutre neighborhood built back in 1180! With sick rooms of the gothic angevin style, built by the narrowest point in the river on a hill of schist, the Castle of Angers began in 1232 under Blanche de Castille as well as a circle wall today the boulevards of the city center . One enclosure has 800 meters long and 17 towers of several meters in diameter and about 30 plus meters high. The house or maison d’Adam is very nice medieval house in wood and has two facades of 10 meters each on six floors located near the Cathedral taken its name from the historical Adam and Eve sculptured on the house with decoration of persons and animals. The maison de Simon Poisson in the Doutre built end of 15C, Hôtel des Pénitentes from flamboyant gothic end 15C to first and second renaissance periods. The before mentioned logis Barrault early renaissance style and one of the first mansions done between court and garden and wonderful facades. There is also, the logis Pincé, from the first renaissance style, with two bodies around a tower stairs. Built in 1871 the Grand Théatre in the Place du Ralliement, is of the Haussmanian style ,and transformation of the Second Empire. The abbey Church of the former Abbey of Ronceray is a major work of Roman art with a nave of the 11C well preserved and chapters with decoration of vegetable,animals and figurative scenes. In the old center or Cité you have the wonderful Cathedral of Saint-Maurice built early 11C with an architecture between the roman and the angevin gothic. It has important collection of tapestries shown in the building of Saint-Jean to the Saint-Maurice. The abbey Church of the former abbey of Saint-Serge is also representative of the angevin gothic syle especially its choir. The tower or tour Saint-Aubin is an old clock tower by the former abbey of Saint-Aubin. Finally, the Church Notre-Dame-des-Victoires is a modern realisation built in 1899 in romano byzantine style with great luminosity and esthetiques interiors.
The main green areas in the city are the Jardin des Plantes an English style garden around a stream bordered by shrubs and statues; the jardin du Mail,wide promenade with a model of a fountain shown at the Universal Exposition of 1855 and a French style garden and the parc de l’arboretum enclosing five gardens with different varieties of trees, flowers etc around 1500 species and 4300 trees.
There are museums, my favorites are the fine arts museum or musée des beaux-arts d’Angers, it is at the famous logis Barrault,with museum graphics and the history of the city, and upstairs the fine arts. Located in the former abbey Church of Toussaint,you have the Galerie David d’Angers showing an important part of the work of Pierre-Jean David, aka David d’Angers. The collection includes the quasi totals of the shop models in plaster of the sculptur of the 23 statues shown, and the model of the fronton of the Panthéon, etc etc. Located in the Castle, you have the Galerie de l’Apocalypse showing the trapesty of the apocalypse ordered by Louis 1 Duke of Anjou at the end of the 14C; retracing the apocalypse according to Saint John but showing as well the sociopolitical context of France during the war of Hundred years. It has 106 meters now from 140 meters at the original and still gives a rare look at medieval art. The museum or musée Jean-Lurçat as well as the contemporary tapestry Done in 1957, the tapestry of the cry of the world or Chant du Monde is a series of ten tapestries on human destiny and as honoring the tapestry of the apocalypse.
And last but not least, the library Toussaint has over 250K volumes of local heritage including psalms Caroligians from the middle of the 9C as well as 117 incunables where it has still ten in the world !, and the first printed book after the Bible of Gutenberg,in 1457. Printed in three colors blue, red and black. Just outside town in Marcé ,you have an aerodrome housing the regional museum of the airplane with several models of old light airplanes, it is at Angers-Marcé. Very nice place indeed but need a car.
Some webpages to help you plan your trip to this intriguing nice city by the Maine are here:
City of Angers in French info on right about museums and castle : http://www.angers.fr/l-action-municipale/index.html
Tourist office of Angers in English: http://www.angersloiretourisme.com/en/discovery/see-it-do-it/must-see-list
Tourist info from the region department Anjou in English: http://www.anjou-loire-valley.co.uk/Explore-Anjou/castles-heritage/unmissable-castles
Region Pays de la Loire tourism on Angers in English : https://www.paysdelaloire.co.uk/suggestions/Angers
There you go, now you are all set to come and visit Angers, this is worth the detour and you will be glad you did. And ,remembrer, happy travels, good health, and many cheers to all !!!
Paris1972-Versailles2003 